He had, he said, a funeral to organize.

Posted: 4/6/12 at 9:58am

An Obituary from the Chicago Tribune for a woman who spent almost 30 years running a small theater. I thought you might enjoy it.

"In my job you hear a lot of curtain speeches — turn off your cellphones, subscribe now, blah, blah, blah. But in that sea of rhetorical predictability, there is one speech I will never forget. It took place about five or six years ago at the Illinois Theatre Center in Park Forest. It was delivered by Etel Billig, who died last week.

It wasn't that Billig was saying anything especially unusual. It was just that there was a guy in a wheelchair, with an oxygen tank, in the front row of her theater. Somewhere in the middle of her welcome and her preview of upcoming attractions, it dawned on Billig that this gentleman, whose name she knew, for she knew almost all of her subscribers at the Illinois Theatre Center, didn't have a very good view of the stage. So she decided to move him — I think his name was Fred, but my memory fades — to a better spot. She left her perch at the front of the stage and headed for Fred, grasping the back of his chair, maneuvering around his oxygen tank, and shifting his spot to what the folks in New York like to call a premium ticket (and charge accordingly). Remarkably, she continued talking to the audience the entire time, even while she was taking care of Fred. Nobody other than me found this at all unusual. This was the way Billig did her theatrical business, one audience member at a time."
Read the rest at Chicago Tribune

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 4/6/12 at 12:57pm

What a nice tribute. Thanks for sharing.

[bookofmel]

Posted: 4/6/12 at 3:12pm

That's lovely. What a beautiful obituary.

[OtherDaryl2]

Posted: 4/9/12 at 9:16am

Etel was singular and will be greatly missed.